Outtakes Online: Gilbert inspires ‘Five-0′ episode

The memories are unavoidable for Tip Gilbert, even now, 27 years after the kidnap and murder of his daughter. Whenever he hears about a missing child, he thinks of Maile. She was only 6.

Maile Gilbert. (Courtesy photo)

But the experience will go a step further on tonight’s episode of “Hawaii Five-0,” in which he’ll play himself and discuss the case. Gilbert and his friends in the Pacific Knights motorcycle club will help Five-0 investigate a kidnapping and its connection to the discovery of the body of a girl who vanished a decade earlier.

“I’m playing me,” said Gilbert, a 58-year-old project manager for the commercial dive company Sea Engineering. “Everything I basically said I’ve said before in real life.”

“Five-0” has previously mentioned the state’s Maile Amber Alert program, which is named for Gilbert’s daughter and Amber Hagerman of Texas, who was also kidnapped and murdered. That led to a lunch meeting with Peter Lenkov, the show’s executive producer, and Gilbert told him his story.

Maile was abducted during a family party on Aug. 25, 1985. Her body was found the next day in a shallow grave near Kaena Point. Her killer is serving a life term in prison. Gilbert worked with law enforcement agencies, the Hawaii Attorney General’s Missing Child Center of Hawaii, state civil defense officials and the local broadcast community to create the alert program that began in 2002.

“Peter wrote a story inspired by Maile,” Tip Gilbert said. “I think she inspired his creativity on this episode.”

Lenkov wrote the story and the teleplay was written by Noah Nelson. The episode was directed by “Five-0″ regular Steve Boyum. It also features guest star Henry Rollins, punk rocker-turned-actor.

Gilbert spent three days on set last month. But even though he has been on camera before, explaining the story to journalists, it wasn’t any easier this time.

“When I was shooting ‘Five-0’ I actually in my mind, journeyed back to the day Maile was missing,” Gilbert said. “It was pretty intense for a while but the people at ‘Five-0’ were understanding and supportive. They treated me very well.”

State officials estimate that more than 3,000 children are reported missing in Hawaii every year but authorities are able to locate the majority of them. But time is always crucial. Nationwide, most children kidnapped by non-family members are killed within a few hours of an abduction. An alert system improves the chances of survival for abducted children.———
Mike Gordon covers film and television in Hawaii for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Email him at mgordon@staradvertiser.com and follow him on Twitter. Read his weekly “Outtakes” column Sundays in the Star-Advertiser.